WIP thread New Users Contest - May 2013

Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest contest…
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________“3D Lights & Magic”

In creating a great looking render, light is at least 50% of the task. You can make any great looking prop of figure look flat and dull with the wrong light, and you can make a good looking figure or prop look absolutely fantastic with the right light.Intent: To create a scene where lighting is used in clever ways to really make the scene look fantastic.
This months sponsor is ART Collaborations, store: http://www.daz3d.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=artcollaborations (bundles excluded)

I will be checking in on the WIP THREAD as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
For a list of the current contest rules, please see this thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/3440/

For those veterans of the forums that would like to help, because this contest is designed for the beginner to learn from, we will be randomly selecting posts offering helpful tips and/or critiques to receive a special voucher as well so whether you are a seasoned artist or an aspiring one, there is fun for everyone!

Comments

Lights used, UberEnvironment, 3 UberSurface: window, oil lamp, fireplace, 3 Linear Point Lights used, 2 for the fireplace, one for the oil lamp. Image is from this thread which has a bit on lighting if anyone is interested.

UberEnvironment is set to a blue for moonlight. Fireplace US color of light is set to fire diffuse map with 2 lp lights, smaller is brighter and orange, larger is red. Window glass light is set to glass diffuse with I forget opacity. Oil Lamp is dusky pale yellow. The only ambient in the scene is applied to the US surfaces. The out-of-the-box render for the scene is at link above.

I know I have several barbed wires, the best was from Rendo (a set called Vogel Einz!) Lowres German soldiers. I think there is some also at onTarget3D in the set called Trenches, but I can probably make some if you ask nicely, I now how I can make it simple ;-)

I have just had a friendly point in the right direction for some poser barbed wire.
So I can add this to my picture.

I would love to have some adjustable/ movable barbed wire, so I can wrap around stuff.
That would be cool and well worth buying, I can think of a few different pictures I would like to do with movable wire.

I have just had a friendly point in the right direction for some poser barbed wire.
So I can add this to my picture.

great!

I would love to have some adjustable/ movable barbed wire, so I can wrap around stuff.
That would be cool and well worth buying, I can think of a few different pictures I would like to do with movable wire.

Hello all,
I don't know if my lighting is up to par with a lot of others as i am just learning about lighting. I am so pleased you are having this contest. I look forward to learning a great deal of lighting tips and info.
Thank you
Lq

Hello all,
I don't know if my lighting is up to par with a lot of others as i am just learning about lighting. I am so pleased you are having this contest. I look forward to learning a great deal of lighting tips and info.
Thank you
Lq

The general lighting is very nice actually, but there's nothing drawing the eye to the point of focus, the character's eyes. I popped up a quick/dirty example of how having a light beam on the main character's face helps direct the viewer's eye. Purposely not great because It's just meant to give you the idea not act as a blueprint.

Thank you Gedd for the tip I will give that a try I would laso like to learn about gels in lighting i thing in a forest it would look neat. : )

Do you know anything about the Golden rules of art? Using math and examples from hundreds of years we now understand how to DRAW the eyes to places in a render/picture just by having them in the right place to start with.

Still trying to learn my way around Daz, not to mention this whole mysterium that is lightning, but this is what I've come up with for the contest so far.

I am a bit unsure if it is within the rules concerning nudity or not, I personally think it is but I am also very aware that I am not a good judge when it comes to how much is ok. So if this picture is breaking that rule I will of course take it down and than either do some changes or start a new one :)

Oh and a big, big thanks going out to Dreamlight, without his lesson Great Art Now 5_1 Lightning I would never have been able to make this, so a warm hug is sent your way !

Your image is fine in regards to nudity. Your just not allowed to show bare breast or butts. As far as the lighting goes your off to a good start. May I suggest that you add a light that is pretty dim in front of the face to highlight it a bit.

May I suggest that you add a light that is pretty dim in front of the face to highlight it a bit.

Don't think this is what one could call dim... but this is what I came up with for now, only using spotlights so far since I actually haven't been able to figure out htose uber light thingies *sheepish smile* They just refuse to work for me :)

Added a floor and a wall, and got a oddly shaped shadow on the wall. Any idea why? *curious* (wall is made of a cube, and the floor from a pane)

I try and remember that lighting isn't just for illumination. It can sell the scene, it can also help provide focus, add drama and create some really nice special effects. It can also over-power your main subject, wash out your backgrounds or become a distraction. As to the latter, I have plenty of experience! ;-)

Light reacts with everything. This is important to remember when working with textures/shaders, the 3D space and/or set and whatever atmosphere you have (if your software can simulate atmosphere).

I like using lighting (or lack of it) to create the illusion of a larger space. I use Carrara, so I also tend to incorporate volumetric clouds and such in conjunction with lighting when I want to give the impression of a large or cavernous space without actually putting together a large and cavernous set. Especially when the focus is on something close-up.

Here's a couple examples that I did that I think are good examples of simple or non-existent sets that use lighting to sell the space.

May I suggest that you add a light that is pretty dim in front of the face to highlight it a bit.

Don't think this is what one could call dim... but this is what I came up with for now, only using spotlights so far since I actually haven't been able to figure out htose uber light thingies *sheepish smile* They just refuse to work for me :)

Added a floor and a wall, and got a oddly shaped shadow on the wall. Any idea why? *curious* (wall is made of a cube, and the floor from a pane)

/C

Hej, (Sorry, noticed you're Swedish too, the name gave you away)

First, you need a little soft Ambient light I think, just enough to smooth out the wall shadows (cast my the legs from the spotlight that is lighting up the legs. Second, remember to use really soft shadows (girls should always be rendered with softer shadows unless they are real heroines. A second not, try to light the face more than the rest of the body, use the low intensities and soft shadows. UberEnvironment can be tricky until you understand, then it's very simple.

UE steps:
(a) Add an UE to the scene.
(b) Select it, then select a quality preset (as high as possible if you want some good results)
(c) Then select what kind of HDRI Image (image lights you want)

Also, for your final renders, go to the advanced render settings tab in the render tab. This is a setting Sedor figured out that works well, I use it. See attached image. I explained about UE in this thread, might be worth reading.

May I suggest that you add a light that is pretty dim in front of the face to highlight it a bit.

Don't think this is what one could call dim... but this is what I came up with for now, only using spotlights so far since I actually haven't been able to figure out htose uber light thingies *sheepish smile* They just refuse to work for me :)

Added a floor and a wall, and got a oddly shaped shadow on the wall. Any idea why? *curious* (wall is made of a cube, and the floor from a pane)

/C

Hej, (Sorry, noticed you're Swedish too, the name gave you away)

First, you need a little soft Ambient light I think, just enough to smooth out the wall shadows (cast my the legs from the spotlight that is lighting up the legs. Second, remember to use really soft shadows (girls should always be rendered with softer shadows unless they are real heroines. A second not, try to light the face more than the rest of the body, use the low intensities and soft shadows. UberEnvironment can be tricky until you understand, then it's very simple.

UE steps:
(a) Add an UE to the scene.
(b) Select it, then select a quality preset (as high as possible if you want some good results)
(c) Then select what kind of HDRI Image (image lights you want)

Also, for your final renders, go to the advanced render settings tab in the render tab. This is a setting Sedor figured out that works well, I use it. See attached image. I explained about UE in this thread, might be worth reading.

Heh, yeah I'm swedish :)

As for the shadows, I honestly have no idea how to make them work. I assume UE is Uber enviroment? I've bene trying to get the uber lights and such to work ever since I downloaded Daz, even re-installed. But I must be doing something wrong with ose lights, cause they refuse to work for me. I only get told that I need to have uber something or another targeted, the problem is I still haven't figured out what it is I need and where to find it.

In the picture so far, I've used 4 spotlight, with different intesnity and so on *sheepish smile* Will read through that thread you linked and see if I can wrap my head around Uber lights

One of the big time vampires for rendering is Global Illumination, AKA: GI. I've learned over the years that with a little work you can fairly effectively simulate the look.

The finished image I'm posting is an outdoor scene created in Carrara 7.2 Pro. I use a Realistic Sky which can be used as an Image Based Light model (IBL), similar to an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image). To do so in Carrara requires partial GI, which is faster than full GI, but can still take a l-o-n-g time to calculate especially with all the trees and clouds.

What I did was to insert a sphere primitive, a distant light and a surface replicator.

The light was set to 5% brightness with a pale blue color to complement the sky color.

I chose the sphere in the surface replicator to be the surface and the light to be replicated across the sphere.

To control the placement of the lights I created a distribution shader with a black and white color gradient. The white would be where the lights are placed and the black would have no lights. The graduation between the two would have fewer lights. I could probably have just created a vertex half sphere, but I already had the gradient shader so I just did it this for expediency. I hid the sphere by un-checking it's visibility, thus leaving only the replicated lights "visible."

I replicated the single distant light fifty times, which is about as low as I could get and still get the effect of GI on the shadows. In other words: A soft diffuse light which creates natural soft shadows, similar to an HDRI, but without the long light calculations.

I added two more lights, a sunlight, which is in essence a distant light tied to the sun's disk in the Realistic Sky, and a distant light pointing straight up and excluding the terrain, and water (not visible from this angle) to simulate reflected light from the ground. The sunlight was set at 125% brightness and the "ground" light was set at 20%.

I know these are fairly Carrara specific, but I believe I read the newest version of Bryce had some kind of replicator. If this is so, perhaps it could be used to create a light dome.

The finished image has a collision artifact that was painted out (a foot poking through a stirrup), but otherwise no post-work. No levels adjustments, no color, and contrast adjustments, and no filters applied.